Posts Tagged ‘Judea’

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Finance Minister Yair Lapid – who both have opposed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on past issues regarding Judea and Samaria – again warned him late Sunday night over his cancellation of a de facto freeze on Jewish building there.

The two senior cabinet ministers told Netanyahu following a Channel 2 report about his approval of projects to build several new roads and some 2,000 housing units in already-existing settlement blocs that the move would exacerbate already-strained ties with the U.S.

“Plans for more construction, even if it’s in the settlement blocs, under such sensitive circumstances that we find ourselves in, is irresponsible from both a diplomatic and security standpoint,” Livni warned. “The fear of publicly acknowledging that there is a construction freeze outside of the settlement blocs will lead to damage to the bloc themselves.”

Lapid also spoke of his fears that the move would further inflame already hot tempers at the White House and State Department. The finance minister said any construction in Judea and Samaria would lead to a “serious crisis in ties with the United States, and it would harm Israel’s international standing.”

He added that while in principle he is not opposed to construction inside the settlement blocs, “at this stage it will cause damage to Israel.”

The Obama Administration has drawn closer to Iran and Gaza’s ruling Hamas terrorists despite Israel’s efforts to maintain stable relations with the United States and despite the de facto building freeze that residents of those areas have endured for months.

Such a building freeze means that residents living in Judea and Samaria cannot even repair a road or driveway, or build an addition to a porch, let alone add an extra room to their homes, without the risk of having it destroyed.

It means that no community can add a new classroom to a burgeoning school, no matter how many new babies are born in the town, and no new apartments can be built to accommodate the natural growth among the families.

No new libraries, or community centers, or even bypass roads can be created to avoid the dangerous areas that are increasing by the day, as Arabs in the region are incited to violence by their Palestinian Authority unity government.

This, as neighboring Arabs in precisely the same areas are building freely without cease, beautiful, free-standing new homes going up on a near-daily basis with brand-new roads springing up alongside.

Arab construction is moving forward at a brisk pace with the assistance of generous funding from the European Union and other foreign sources – in the same disputed areas where Jews are warned not to build.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu this morning inked his approval on plans for new building projects in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. But it’s important to remember that such approval is only the first step in a very, very long process that often takes literally years to come to fruition.

And sometimes such projects don’t ever really come to pass. The red tape is just that complicated.

Today (Monday, Oct. 27) Netanyahu authorized plans to move forward for 1,060 such units in Jerusalem neighborhoods built after the 1967 Six Day War, according his spokesperson.

Officials said 660 of the units are to be built in the Har Homa neighborhood, and another 600 are planned for the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo.

Yesterday (Oct. 26), Israel’s Channel 2 reported that the prime minister’s office has been negotiating with the Judea and Samaria Communities Council over a deal to end the de facto freeze on Jewish construction in the regions.

According to the report, Netanyahu’s representatives discussed the construction of new roads in Samaria, including a new bypass road to circumvent Shechem’s dangerous Hawara neighborhood. Other new roads would include routes to the communities of Immanuel and Eli, and plans to widen Highway 60, where Arab road terror attacks are frequent and not easily evaded.

Several youth villages are planned as well as a number of new parks, and a boardwalk in the Etzion bloc in memory of the three murdered yeshiva students, Eyal Yifrach, Naftali Frenkel and Gilad Sha’ar.

In addition, the prime minister has reportedly agreed to the construction of some 2,000 new housing units, most to be built within the current settlement blocs.

Millions of shekels are to be invested in the project, according to the report, which noted the move followed a meeting between Netanyahu and Bayit Yehudi party chairman Naftali Bennett.

Contrary to earlier media reports, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon did NOT ban Palestinian Authority Arab workers from using Israeli public buses, on either side of the 1949 Armistice Line, also called the “Green Line.”

What Ya’alon did do, as reported today (Sunday, Oct. 26) by The Jerusalem Post and The Knesset Channel, was create a plan that will soon require PA Arab workers to return to their homes each night in the PA via the same checkpoint through which they earlier entered Israel.

There is no start date yet for the program, which will begin with one major checkpoint, reportedly the Eyal checkpoint near the PA Arab city of Qalqilya.

The plan will enable security personnel to more efficiently track PA Arab workers as they travel to and from their day jobs on the Israel side of the pre-1967 line.

Until now, Palestinian Authority Arab workers in Samaria (Shomron) with authorized work permits have been able to cross the 1949 Armistice Lines and enter pre-1967 Israel via one checkpoint, and return via any other.

At the end of each day, they could, and did, return via any other checkpoint they wished — or not. And the “or not” is the problem.

It was extremely difficult to properly track those who illegally stayed over in Tel Aviv and those who returned home as they were supposed to each night, the defense minister noted. And that created serious security issues.

Leftwingers are screaming “Apartheid” and segregation, claiming PA residents who use the Eyal checkpoint won’t be allowed to ride Israeli buses anymore.

But it won’t be because of any ban. The only Jewish community that shares the use of the Eyal checkpoint is Tzofim, and Tzofim is on the Western side of the security fence.

Otherwise, the only reason one goes through the Eyal checkpoint is to enter or exit the PA controlled city of Qalqilya, and Israelis generally aren’t allowed into Qalqilya.

The bottom line is that if PA Arabs cross the Green Line at the Eyal checkpoint, it is unlikely they will be sharing buses with Israelis, but only because there are no Israeli passengers there to pick up, and not because of some fictional ban.

Whether in Tel Aviv or in Samaria (Shomron), PA Arabs can use any bus they choose.

Peace Now co-founder Tzali Reshef may passionately defend his organization’s position against construction in areas outside the 1949 Armistice Line (“Green Line”) — but in his other life Reshef’s company invests in the lucrative building trade to be found in those exact same areas in Jerusalem.

The disparity emerged last week following Reshef’s debate on Israel’s Channel 2 television with Dani Dayan, entrepreneur and former chairman of the Judea and Samaria Council of Jewish Communities (Yesha Council). Reshef, 61, served as a Labor MK from August 2002 to February 2003. Today he is a successful businessman who heads Arledan Investments, Ltd and its subsidiary, Keter Publishing House.

The issue under discussion between the two men was the construction of a new neighborhood – Givat HaMatos — in southern Jerusalem, near Gilo and on the “other side” of the 1949 Armistice Line.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has slammed what he called a “deliberate” attempt by the radical leftist Peace Now movement to sabotage his meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday. The group deliberately publicly railed about a published tender notifying Israelis of the final approval for construction of housing in the Givat HaMatos neighborhood, a years-old project that had already won its initial approval in 2011.

The group’s “leak” was timed to coincide with Netanyahu’s meeting at the White House, where it did indeed create a firestorm of outrage, as Peace Now intended. White House press secretary Josh Earnest condemned the project, saying it would “call into question Israel’s ultimate commitment to a peaceful negotiated settlement with the Palestinians.” State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki issued a similar condemnation.

Notably, “The truth is that there is no private Palestinian land in this plan,” Peace Now admits on its website. “The lands included in the plan are state lands and tenders to these plans will be published by the state, similarly to the case in Har Homa, Gilo, Ramot and other neighborhoods,” according to the site. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat announced that in Givat HaMatos, plans include construction of housing for Arab residents as well.

As co-founder of the radical leftist movement, Reshef presents himself to the Israeli public as someone passionately opposed to building new Jewish neighborhoods or communities – or any construction in those that exist, including expansion – in areas claimed by the Palestinian Authority for its hoped-for state. Among those territories are areas that were forcibly occupied by Jordan from 1948 to 1967 and won by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War (Judea, Samaria, Jordan Valley, and about half of Jerusalem.)

Last week, Peace Now executive director Yariv Oppenheimer openly blamed Israel’s prime minister for U.S. President Barack Obama’s outrage at the construction of new Israeli homes in the neighborhood, saying “He is responsible for authorizing building in sensitive areas like Givat HaMatos.”

Likewise, during last week’s televised debate with Dani Dayan, Reshef said bluntly that construction in “East Jerusalem” sabotages peace, is an anti-patriotic act, and called it an “abomination.”

Jewish Press.com tried several times to contact Reshef by phone to request elaboration on those remarks, but failed to reach him.

“Fine. That’s his opinion and he is entitled to it,” commented Dayan in an exclusive interview with JewishPress.com on Monday evening. “But I was shocked to discover the day after our debate that Reshef’s company, “Arledan,” actually initiated construction projects in Gilo and French Hill – two major neighborhoods located over the ‘Green Line.’ ”

Arledan shows off its properties in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo.

One of Israel’s leading public investment companies, Arledan began as a private corporation, acting primarily as a real estate developer. But it went public in 1981, with shares now trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Arledan acts as a developer for properties that it owns and also rents out various commercial and residential properties, to quote the company’s site, “primarily in the city of Jerusalem. Some of the projects Arledan has successfully developed over the years include residential projects in the neighborhoods of French Hill, Gilo, Givat Oranim and Mevaseret Zion, as well as residential and commercial projects in downtown Jerusalem.” (italics added for emphasis)

Israel has begun to get serious about cracking down on Arab attackers who are determined to harm Jews in Jerusalem and around the country.

On Monday alone, by 10 pm security personnel had recorded a total of 39 terror attacks carried out against travelers on the roads of Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.

Most involved Arabs hurling rocks and firebombs at vehicles as they passed by. Such attacks can be lethal, and indeed have sometimes led to deaths or severe injuries.

Late Monday and early Tuesday, Jerusalem District Police arrested 22 Arabs in connection with recent rioting and attacks on Jews.

Among the detainees were six children around 12 years old, who were suspected of hurling firebombs – also called Molotov cocktails – at Jewish homes in the mixed southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Tor. Four teens confessed to hurling firebombs at police and security personnel in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan and elsewhere in the city, citing their “hatred for Jews.”

Three other teens were detained on suspicion of hurling rocks at the Jerusalem Light Rail, which has sustained damage to about half of its passenger cars due to constant attacks – most in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat.

“The Jerusalem Police will continue its determined and uncompromising activity and lay its hand on whomever is involved in the rioting in the city, and will act to bring them to justice,” the police said in a statement. More arrests are expected.

In fact, the Jerusalem District Police have apparently been kept far busier in recent months than those in Judea and Samaria, according to data published by the Hebrew-language 0404 website.

Within the past two months, Jerusalem police have arrested more than 700 Arabs suspected of hurling rocks and firebombs and other terrorist activity in the Jerusalem area. So far charges have been filed against 250 of those suspects who were detained.

Widespread arrest operations have taken place in Arab neighborhoods where rioting has occurred. Among those is Shuafat, where massive demonstrations and violence utterly destroyed the infrastructure and equipment for three of the stops on the Light Rail line.

For the past two weeks, all vacations for police officers were cancelled. The number of arrests in Jerusalem has also been double those carried out by the IDF in Judea and Samaria over the past two months.

Arab terrorists were out in force on Wednesday, attacking travelers along the roads and rails of Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.

By 10 pm, there were at least 21 reports of deadly Arab ambushes with rock attacks and firebombs aimed at Israeli vehicles, according to the Hebrew-language 0404 website.

A bus traveling towards Tekoa in eastern Gush Etzion came under attack by Arab road terrorists who hurled rocks and firebombs at the driver and passengers. The window of the bus was shattered but miraculously no one was physically injured.

“They hit the bus with a hail of stones,” one of the passengers told the 0404 website, “then hurled a bottle of paint at the windshield of the driver.”

The Jerusalem Light Rail also came under attack Wednesday, with Arabs in the northern neighborhood of Shuafat again hurling rocks at the cars as the train passed through the area.

None of the passengers were physically injured though a number were traumatized, and the train was damaged in the attack. Nearly half of the cars in the Light Rail fleet are out of commission due to intifada attacks by Jerusalem-area Arabs, most of them in the Shuafat neighborhood.